The big story

That didn’t last long, did it?

Once upon a time, it looked like the Blazers would be a championship-caliber outfit for much of the decade to come, built around center Greg Oden and guard Brandon Roy. But Oden’s repetitive knee problems and Roy’s retirement (he has since returned to the league with the Timberwolves) scuttled that. Still, they came into last season looking forward to big things, with Raymond Felton and Jamal Crawford added to the mix and coach Nate McMillan, one of the best in the league, at the helm. And they were, at one point, 7-2, and looking like they were on to something.

But locker-room dissent festered, players like Felton and Marcus Camby were unhappy, and things began to unravel. It didn’t help that the top three guards (Felton, Crawford and Wesley Matthews) combined to shoot 40.1 percent from the field, or that the bench was nonexistent. After the Blazers were embarrassed in March in a 42-point loss to the Knicks, McMillan was fired, Camby was traded and forward Gerald Wallace was dealt, too. A promising year quickly became a rebuilding project.

The Blazers have, at least, gotten the next rebuilding project off to a pretty good start. They had the Nets’ pick in the draft (thanks to the Wallace trade) and used it on superquick point guard Damian Lillard, the second-leading scorer in the NCAA this year. Lillard has the potential to be a quality scorer, and if anyone beats out No. 1 pick Anthony Davis for rookie of the year, Lillard would be a good bet. Portland also went with still-developing center Meyers Leonard, who is athletic and stands 7-1 but needs to put together some semblance of a post game.

Portland’s cupboard wasn’t entirely bare even after last year’s tear-down. All-Star power forward LaMarcus Aldridge ended the season with hip surgery (he’s ready to go for this season), but when healthy, he is a full-fledged star—even among last season’s general Blazers misery, and even with his hip bothering him, he averaged 21.7 points on 51.2 percent shooting. They also went into the summer holding the rights to wing Nicolas Batum, and matched the hefty four-year, $46 million offer that he received from the Timberwolves. Matthews, too, is back.

Still, this is a team that is trying to mix some in-their-prime veterans with some very young pieces, and that will be a difficult juggling act for new coach Terry Stotts—he will have to balance the older guys’ desire to win now against the need to focus on the development of young players.

Keep an eye on

It is impossible to have witnessed the career development of Nicolas Batum and not feel shortchanged. Batum is in his fifth season, all in Portland, and obviously, the contract offer from the Timberwolves shows that he is highly valued around the league. But we have yet to really see that translated into on-court production. That’s not to say Batum hasn’t played well—he averaged career-best 13.9 points last season and shot 45.1 percent from the field and 39.1 percent from the 3-point line. That’s good.

But Batum could be better. He has been held back to this point by a couple of factors. First, he simply needs to be a better defender. He has the athleticism and length to achieve this, but he has bounced between positions. Now that he is undoubtedly the small forward, he needs to get settled in. The second factor could be resolved this season, too. Too often, Batum is all too willing to defer to Portland’s other players, and when the Blazers had Wallace or Roy, that was understandable.

Now, though, Batum has to realize he is the Blazers’ No. 2 option after Aldridge. Lillard will surely score, but Batum needs to be more assertive offensively to take advantage of his skills. He has averaged 10.2 points in his career—he should put up 16 to 18 points this season.

Strategy session

Beyond the trio of Aldridge, Batum and Matthews, Stotts has little to work with in terms of veterans. The two most experienced rotation players he has outside of those guys are two forwards, J.J. Hickson, who revived his career with a strong finish last season after flunking out in Sacramento, and offensively inept Jared Jeffries. Beyond them, Stotts’ big men are rookies Leonard, ’06 draft pick Joel Freeland (who has established himself as a top European big man) and ’tweener rookie forward Victor Claver.

Stotts is going to have to give serious consideration to going with a small lineup that has Aldridge at center and either Hickson or Jeffries at power forward. Aldridge prefers not to play center, and defensively, he is overmatched. But if Stotts doesn’t go to a small lineup, he will have to either start Freeland or throw Leonard to the wolves well before he is ready.

Outside view (from a Western Conference scout)

“Watching Lillard the times I got to see him play in college and then again watching him in summer league, you can definitely see why a lot of teams fell in love with him. He is polished and he knows how to score; he does not make many mistakes. He was a (redshirt junior), so he is going to be ahead of some other guys coming in as rookies, and in the long haul, that probably means he doesn’t have the same upside as some other guys. But I think he can come in and take the starting reins right away and be a pretty good point guard from Day 1.”

Inside view (from coach Terry Stotts)

“I am an optimistic guy. I don’t go into any season expecting disappointment. I don’t think that’s a good way to go through life. This league is a struggle. I’ve been with 60-win teams and we have had blowups. There’s always moments in the season that are struggling, depending on how the season goes. Like I said earlier, as long as this team competes and comes out every night, I think the fans will enjoy this team, whether we win or lose. Everybody wants to win—I am not taking that out of the equation—but we’re going to compete. When you compete, even if you have struggles, that takes care of a lot of the questions in that area.”

Our view

Unless one of the rookies off the bench really proves to be a big-time find, the Blazers’ rebuilding program will continue into next summer. That doesn’t mean they’re far off, not with the front-line talent they have, but there is no way they have a shot at staying in playoff contention with a bench this weak. Guard Nolan Smith has been a disappointment, forward Luke Babbitt can shoot but does little else, and the rookies are unknown commodities. The Blazers will be fun to watch, but they will ultimately head back to the lottery.

Projected rotation

Again, Stotts will have to make the call on how to use Aldridge and whether he thinks Leonard is ready to play. Actually, Leonard is not ready to play, but Stotts will have to decide whether he can live with that.